The current state of the art for VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) packages, such as transceivers, involves complicated 3-dimensional assembly of VCSELs, integrated circuits (ICs), photodetector chips, and the like including alignment and coupling with stacks of optical elements such as lens arrays, turning mirrors, and fiber ferrules. The current packaging scheme also involves several materials such as optical underfills, adhesives, and thermal interface materials, each of which is poses potential interfacial defects. The current assembly is mostly manual, and thus is time consuming with low throughput.